Promethean Nature
Traits Disquiet Does not affect supernatural beings with a major template. Disquiet also does not advance from the third stage to the forth stage unless the mortal witnesses the Promethian's disfigurements, some other overtly supernatural display (so a Promethian who hides his disfigurements with Refined Masquerade while using Mimic’s Voice is safe, a Promethean who combines Refined Masquerade with Arc is not), is harmed in some way by the Promethean or the Promethean rolls a Dramatic Failure on a social interaction. This does not change the rules for Disquiet spreading once it has reached the fourth stage. The first three stages of Disquiet vanish in one day per Azoth, not one week per Azoth. However if the victim rolls to resist Disquiet again, then even on a success the timer resets. On an exceptional success the timer doesn't reset, this time. In all other ways Disquiet is unchanged. The Wasteland The Wasteland is massively reduced in scope and power. A Wasteland is tied to the mystical process of settling down, of claiming some place as your own (see the Lair merit). Through the link a Promethean (or anyone) forms with their home a Promethean's humour spreads outwards, increasing the Wasteland by one stage per week to a maximum based on Azoth: Stage 2 at Azoth 1, Stage 3 at Azoth 4, Stage 4 at Azoth 7. Though a Promethian can survive the Wasteland, a quiet suburban home under permanent storm clouds will attract the wrong sort of attention. Prometheans still must make their Lairs away from prying eyes. Going to the wastes is a separate process that is consciously chosen by a Promethean. It uses the Wasteland rules in Promethean: the Created, exactly as they were written. Superlative Endurance Prometheans do not loose limbs when they take aggravated damage. Instead, a Promethean has a fourth "layer" of Health which is filled by grievous damage; mark a grievous wound by completely filling in the Health box. A Promethean can only take grievous damage when aggravated damage rolls over; no weapon will cause grievous damage directly. The current rules for the loss of limbs applies as normal, but to grievous rather than aggravated damage. Healing Grievous Damage Despite its severity, grievous damage can still be healed by a jolt of electricity: treat each point of grievous damage as worth two points of aggravated damage. However, grievous damage can only be healed if the Promethean has eaten a full meal in the current scene; the new body mass must come from somewhere. If the Promethean has lost a limb entirely, that damage can only be healed if he has possession of the limb (or at least most of it). Holding a severed wrist to the stump while running a current through one's body will allow the Divine Fire to reattach the limb. Finally: resurrection, from any source, will completely clear all grievous damage. Such resurrections are typically violent things, as the Divine Fire consumes nearby matter to build new limbs from. The Pilgrimage New Dawn A newly created Promethean always has a chance at achieving the new dawn. This is the golden rule, drawn from the nature of the Divine Fire, and can never be broken. A Promethean may fail too many milestones to succeed on the Pilgrimage; but a new Promethean fresh of the slab always has the opportunity to become mortal: no Promethean is created without that chance, or impossible conditions that must be fulfilled before the New Dawn. The end result of the Pilgrimage is based entirely on the person the Promethean wishes to be: they may change gender, ethnicity, they may even change species. Grandfather Crow can turn into an ordinary crow, and even a Promethean built from a human body could turn into an ordinary crow if it truely wished to be so. The end result may not be any supernatural being, but minor supernatural traits such as a Wolfblood or a Rebus are possibilities. The potentual to gain a supernatural template exists later, of course. Progeny All Prometheans can create progeny outside their Lineage or even their Humour, though this is difficult and dangerous. A minor change where the Promethean attempts to create progeny of his own Humour with a single mechanical difference (one of: Lineage Bestowment, Lineage Transmutation, or component materials) inflicts a -3 penalty. Creating progeny of the same Humour but with more than a single mechanical difference is a -4 penalty. Creating progeny of a different Humour is a -5 penalty. In addition, the Promethean will require a sample of the desired Humour. This is most easily acquired from another Promethean, though someone with sufficient skill in Alchemy might be able to create a sample of artificial Humour. Because the Humour used is not the Promethean's own, this does not satisfy the conditions for the New Dawn. If the Promethean attempts to create a member of an established Lineage other than her own and receives tutoring or has an opportunity to study the process, then there is a +1 bonus which somewhat alleviates the difficulty. This bonus does not stack with the bonus for studying a mortal demiurge's notes. Seeking tutelage under other Prometheans of the same Humour is exceptionally common for Extempores, who may have no other way to create progeny on the road to the New Dawn. Humanity A Promethean begins at Humanity one and must earn their Humanity during the Pilgrimage. A low-Humanity Promethean is probably not immoral; rather, she is amoral having never learnt right from wrong. She might for example kill a human who scared her because she didn't know you shouldn't kill people. In addition, a Promethean has seven Burdens. These represent physical problems or mental confusion that hinder the Promethean upon her Pilgrimage, and are often influenced by both one's Humour and Lineage. Burdens are marked as mild, severe or extreme, there is no mechanical distinction but it is recommended that more sever Burdens are removed earlier in the Pilgrimage. The only way to remove Burdens is to achieve Milestones. Sucessfully achieving a Milestone can remove a suitable Burden; failing a Milestone can replace one Burden with another that is appropriate to whatever bad ideas the Promethean learned from that Milestone, of at least the same severity. Example Burdens Any Derangement can be reskinned as a Burden. Solipsism (Severe, Extreme) ''' The Promethian simply does not understand that other people have thoughts or feelings of their own. At best they might see them like a human would see a computer game charachter, you can interact with them but there is no moral issue regarding how you interact. Otherwise the Promethian might see people as a peculiarly mobile rock. This Burden is rarely seen outside the newly created. '''Effect: The Promethean cannot regain Willpower from any Virtue that revolves around helping others, even if the Promethean has a motive to perform a selfless act they do not feel empathy on the fundamental level required to regain Willpower. (The ability to harm without guilt is provided by the low Humanity of a starting Promethean) Variations: The Promethian is literally unable to understand people. Language sounds like noise, faces are blurry. All social rolls automatically fail. Grotesque (Mild) Whatever illusion of humanity masked the Promethean's disfigurements has faded, and he cannot hide his monstrosity. Effect: The Created's disfigurements openly show, reliably inflicting Disquiet on all who see him. He also takes a -2 on social rolls, unless the action takes advantage of another person's fear or pity. Variations: Instead of revealing his disfigurements, his illusion of humanity clouds his expressions, so that he cannot make emotional appeals or establish personal rapport. Vapors (Mild) The Promethean's humours emit foul odors, singling him out as unhealthy at best, and otherworldly at worst. Effect: The Promethean smells like sulfur, sewage, strong vinegar, or anything unpleasant. Not only does this impose a -2 penalty to all social rolls, but people who cannot see the Promethean do not gain a bonus to resist Disquiet unless they also cannot smell the Promethean. Variations: The character sets off bomb-sniffing dogs and/or equipment; when suffering from Torment the Promethean sets off smoke detectors and fire suppression systems. Splitting Seams (Severe) The Promethian's body is not well constructed. Stitches snap, bolts rust, and straps stretch, and something gives way when over-exerted. Effect: If the character ever has a dramatic failure on a physical roll, takes damage in excess of her Stamina in one blow, or sprints for a number of turns in excess of her Stamina, one of her limbs falls off or hangs loose by a thread, and she gains an appropriate flaw until it can be repaired (Dexterity + Crafts, each roll representing an hour of work.). Variations: A limb falls off when the character is depleted of Pyros, or fails a roll involving a physical Transmutation. Paper Tongue (Mild) The Promethean is incapable of vocalizing, let alone speaking. Effect: The character automatically fails any roll requiring him to speak, or even grunt or hum. Sign language and written notes can overcome this handicap, but in any situation where they are not the norm, the Storyteller may levy a -2 penalty to rolls where these attempts are made. Signals (Severe) Odd electromagnetic phenomena manifest around the Promethean. In particular, her thoughts sometimes voice themselves in radio transmissions, or images show themselves on nearby monitors and screens. Despite any obvious connection between these signals and the Promethean, insightful people pick up on the clues without even realizing it, and often have the Created at a disadvantage. Effect: If a radio or TV is on within a number of yards equal to the Promethean's Azoth, resisted rolls against the Promethean do not subtract his Composure or Resolve. The Promethean may reflexively spend a Willpower point to dampen the effect of this Bane for a turn. Variations: The Promethean cannot benefit from equipment dice provided by anything more electronically advanced than a calculator (a Willpower point negates this deficit for a single roll). While in Torment, a roll to use an electrical device inflicts damage as though the same number of success were rolled in an attack made against it (so 3 successes on a Computer roll does 3 points of damage to it, reduced by any Durability or hardening that applies). Flux Capacitor (Mild) The Azothic furnace within the Promethean begins to crack under its heat, and Flux seeps into and taints these imperfections. The Created can usually keep this fluctuation under control, but under duress, it explodes out from him and sows chaos. Effect: Whenever the Promethean resists Torment, he also gains a small measure of Flux within his Azoth, a "Flux die" if you will. Each Flux die replaces a die in any dice pool using Azoth or Humanity, or used to activate a Transmutation. Flux dice that turn up a result of 'one' escape from the Promethean and are discarded (this is the only way to lose them), but any Created who are nearby must check to resist Torment. If an affected dice pool is reduced to a chance die, it is still replaced with a Flux die. Variations: Every dice pool is affected. Losing Vitriol to Pandorans or lacunae gains a Flux die. 10-agains on Flux dice create more Flux dice, rolling five or more Flux-dice successes results in a Firestorm. Torment Stains (Severe) Whenever the Promethean falls into Torment they gain a Torment Stain. Each Torment Stain provides a cumulative -1 penalty to resisting Torment, which will eventually reduce even the most human Promethean to a chance die. Therefore one must wash themselves clean of these stains, one can either go to the wastes, or let the feelings out by practising Stannum. Followers of Stannum remove a Torment Stain whenever they gain revenge, two Stains if they are in an episode of Torment at the time. Hardcoded Behaviors (Severe or Extreme) As a result of her creation, the Promethean is literally forced to obey certain behaviours. The Divine Fire usually burns away such restrictions, but sometimes they remain as Burdens: A Golem may have the instruction to protect the Jewish community from persecution written upon a scroll in her mouth, an Unfleshed may be "Asimov Compliant". In the Extreme form the Promethean simply cannot break their programming for as long as they carry the Burden, but in the Severe form they can resist on a Successful Humanity roll, doing so is most likely a Milestone. Variations: If a strip of paper is placed in the character's mouth, he must follow a command written on it. The Promethean has some kind of internal radio that can receive commands from its creators or a sufficiently skilled hacker.